Adventures of the Giant Lime

 

Thomas is having a blast in kindergarten! He told me about the different "stations" where the kids have been enjoying various activities like coloring, painting, and playing with clay. The kids are only there for 2 1/2 hours each day, so it seems like the time goes by very quickly. Despite only two short days of school, Thomas already has some friends, but he told me he can't remember their names just yet.

Today, Tom wore his bright green tee shirt that caused Chris to affectionately nickname him "the Giant Lime." When we were picking out his clothes this morning, Tom was very specific: "I want to wear shorts and I want to be the Giant Lime." Then later this evening, after Gordon got out of the bath, Tom let me know that he was ready to get in when he said, "Mom, I don't want to be the Giant Lime anymore." 

Child of Mass Destruction

It's been one of those days with Gordon. First, he spilled Tom's bowl of Trix in the living room, then meticulously went to each piece of ceral and smashed it with his little sandaled foot. My calls of "No, no, honey!" while I scrambled for the vaccuum were met with that sly little grin and a quicker hurry to smash more cereal.

Next, it was into my make-up drawer in the bathroom where Gordon discovered, tasted, then threw my face powder onto the tile floor, breaking it into a hundred pieces. At least he was interested in watching me clean it up.

And finally, after a dinner of smashed bananas and thrown (once again, what is up with this kid and his throwing habit?!?) bits of quesadilla and peas, I tore off his very messy shirt (his third of the day, by the way) and stuck him in the tub. My irritation quickly disappeared as I watched him snicker with glee as he tried to get a drink from the rapidly flowing faucet. He may be a little stinker, but at least he's clean for now!

  

Kindergarten!!

Today is Tom's first day of kindergarten at Edith Bowen Lab School and boy, is he excited! He is wearing his new school clothes, complete with his cool new shoes. He was also thrilled to finally be able to use his new backpack-- even though it's empty now, I'm sure it will have something in it when he gets home.

Tom looked so cute and happy when we dropped him off that I didn't even feel sad. I do miss hearing him play with Gordon this morning, but I know he's having a great time. I can't wait to pick him up and hear the review!

 
 
  

One, two, three-- KISS!

I remember playing this game with my parents when I was little and it is so cute to watch them playing with my boys. Both boys erupted in giggles while being kissed on both sides of their face! It was so fun to be able to spend some time with Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop this weekend.

 
 
  

Ain't no party like a Park City party!

We had an awesome Saturday traveling to Park City, UT with my parents for the Park City Jazz Festival! We both love jazz music, and there is nothing better than the beautiful setting at Deer Valley to hear it! One of our favorite artists, Gerald Albright, performed in the late evening with fellow saxophonist Kirk Whalum. The music was fantastic, as we expected, with my favorite song of the night being when Gerald joined Kirk in a duet of Kirk's cover of I'll Make Love to You from his new album. It was hot!

The unexpected delight of the evening was a performance by The Crescent Super Band, a jazz band made up entirely of high school students. These kids were amazing-- it was hard to believe that they are all still in their teens! It made us want to get Tom started on an instrument right away... :)

 Elise, Kim & Greg at Deer Valley Resort in Park City.

 I know that most of these pictures are blurry, but here are my best shots of Gerald Albright and Kirk Whalum jamming it out.

 Chris and Elise 

Why I love Picasa...

During a long conference call this morning, I was playing around with the tuning and effects with our pictures on Picasa. I just love the result of this picture of Thomas and I had to share. He's a gorgeous child anyway, but I think the black and white and the shadowing in this picture just accentuate that lovely innocence that is so indicative of his personality. And that sweet smile... it's enough to make my heart melt!

  

Fun in Mommy's Office

Nothing breaks up a monotonous workday like a visit from my mischievous little Gordon! My office does not harbor any normal toys, which apparently makes it the most interesting room in the house. This morning, Gordon enjoyed popping some bubble wrap from a newly-opened package, and spinning in my big black chair. I really should get back to work-- but who can resist those gorgeous blue eyes?!?

 

 
Whee! I love the look of dizzy jubilation on Gordon's face! 

Chocolate Milk

We are crazy milk-drinkers at our house-- particularly Thomas with chocolate milk. We've had to be strict on the chocolate milk consumption, otherwise he'd never drink or eat anything else. The rules are that he can only have one cup per day, and it can't be the first thing he has in the morning. He also has to ask for it "nicely". Tom told us a while ago that chocolate milk is his favorite drink, and his explanations seem to get more and more wordy every day. This is what I heard when I went downstairs for lunch this afternoon:

(Imagine a really fast, run-on sentence with no breaths)

"Hi Mom may I have some chocolate milk please it's my favorite drink that I've ever seen in my whole life say you betcha!"

Who could say no to that?

Almost famous...

A friend sent me a link to MyHeritage.com where you can do a fun celebrity facial recognition for free. I was a little surprised (though not disappointed by any means!) with the results. Now, if I could just get my body to look like these women's, then I'd be set! Ha ha ha...

Then and Now... Celebrating Eight Years!

Today Chris and I celebrated the eighth anniversary of our wedding day! I can't believe how quickly time flies... and yet, it's hard to remember not being married to Chris. In our eight years together, we've lived in three cities, had seven different addresses, driven four cars, attended two schools, and worked for nine companies. We've eaten at hundreds of different restaurants (as you can clearly tell by the number of pounds we've gained... I'm not even going to try and estimate that!) and vacationed at so many fun places. Most importantly, our eight years have given us two of the most wonderful children in the world, and a deeper love and appreciation for each other than we could have ever imagined. I'm so grateful to Chris for being my ideal in every way!

 

Look how little we were! This picture was taken shortly after we got engaged in 1998!

 
 

After all these years, we've still got it!

 

Ah, the Great Outdoors...

This weekend, we had a great time camping in Logan Canyon with our friends Kevin, Becky and Owen Ward! We stayed at the Malibu-Guinivah campground, about 5 miles into the canyon.

We arrived on Friday evening and spent our time letting the boys get as dirty as possible while the adults visited. Chris had to work until 9:30, which was a bummer, but we were happy to welcome him to our later campfire chat. Becky and Kevin made a cobbler in the dutch oven and we all enjoyed eating the standard camping junk food!

Here was the real excitement of our trip: As I was lying on our sleeping bag-covered air matress, trying to snuggle little Gordon to sleep late that night, I began to hear the skittering movement of animals outside our tent. The first unnerving sound was that of our garbage bag dropping from its perch on a tree-- then two or more chatty raccoons arguing over the contents. Raccoons, though annoying, didn't scare me much, but it was the next sound that sent wild shivers up my spine. It started out with large stomping and branches snapping-- obviously, whatever was out there was not a tiny raccoon. Then a low, growly grunt, followed by a high-pitched whine. What was it? Huge raccoon? Moose? Wild Hog? Bear?.... Sasquatch??? Whatever it was, the animal spent every dark moment carousing our campsite and splashing in the nearby marsh-- with my 2 AM imagination, it was certainly listening carefully to the babble of my one-year-old, trying to determine how difficult it would be to snatch him from our tent and devour his chubby little body. Needless to say, I was freaked out. When morning finally rescued us from our traumatic sleepless night, we found our garbage bag and its contents strewn a bit on the ground, and small pawprints left by the little vermin who had made the mess. But no evidence of the Sasquatch... except for four exhausted campers!

On Saturday, Chris made a tasty dutch oven breakfast which we thoroughly enjoyed as we compared accounts of the previous night's events. After we cleaned up the camp, we went on a fun nature walk on Riverside Trail. It was really fun to be out in the canyon-- especially in daylight!! We said good-bye to the Wards in the early afternoon and the boys and I went home to nap while Chris stayed and fished. He caught two tasty trout that we enjoyed eating on Saturday evening. Despite the Sasquatch encounter, we really did have a wonderful weekend!

 

Elise and Gordon on the nature walk
The kids having fun in the back of the car
Look how cute-- and dirty!-- Owen is!
Tom just loves to throw rocks in the river
Chris and his Dutch Oven
Gordon running around the campsite
Sitting around the campfire with Becky
Elise & Becky
Sleepy Gordon after a long night

  

Our own Island of Sodor

Yesterday Tom and Chris set up the train tracks with all of the new additions from Tom's birthday. Tom had a blast-- even though we discovered new sharing issues with his little brother-- and played for hours.

I just had to show the grandparents how much he loves his birthday gifts!

 
  

Where did you get that shirt?

When we were at Little America in Salt Lake this weekend, Chris and his parents got a huge kick out of this funny shirt. Chris said he would wear it to work, so his parents took him up on the offer and bought him the shirt. Sure enough, he wore it yesterday-- and got plenty of comments. Now we're just looking for the local chapter of the Red Hat Society...

 
  

What? More presents?

Okay, so he's a little spoiled...

 Tom's collection of "Thomas the Tank Engine" stuff grew exponentially this weekend. We just love these trains, especially the fact that there is a Thomas train and a Gordon!

 Although he asked for the trains, I think Tom's favorite gift of the weekend was this cool scooter from the Freeds and the Flatlands. He was pretty mad when we told him it was time to come inside! 

The Birthday Magic Continues...

Lucky Thomas got to celebrate his birthday all weekend long!

On Sunday, the Freeds, the Flatlands, and Mom-Mom and Caitlan DeArton came to celebrate at a family dinner party. We had yummy fajitas (thanks Chris!!) and as always, the cousins had a blast together.

 Thomas enjoyed his Birthday video from Pop-Pop!

 Dall and Hadley looked like little beauty queens in some old jewelry that my mom brought with her. Dall was hilarious striking poses as a little model!

 Hadley, Gord, Dallis, Thomas-- they may make a mess, but they sure have fun!

 Tom is great at making Brynnie laugh. Her little giggle is just too cute! 

Thomas is FIVE!!!

First of all, let me just say that I am way too young to have a five-year-old! That being said, what a CELEBRATION we had this weekend!

Thomas turned five years old on Saturday, August 12th. We drove down to Salt Lake City in the late morning and met Grammuh and Grampuh at the Gateway. Our first stop there was the Samba Grill, where we enjoyed a delicious Brazilian lunch, complete with "Happy Birthday" in Portugese!
 

Next, we went to the Clark Planetarium where Thomas, Chris, Grammuh and Grampuh enjoyed an IMAX movie about the Amazon, while Gordon and I toured the moon and Mars. Thomas loves the Planetaruim, especially the huge globe, the gravitational penny drop, and, everyone's favorite (except mine-- ew!) Astronaut Ice Cream.
 

The Olympic Fountain at the Gateway is always a big hit with the boys. Today was no different. Thomas weaved in and out of the spraying fountain, careful to get only a little wet. Gordon, on the other hand, was completely enamoured with the water spouts and would just stand on one until it sprayed him in the face. By the time we left, he was completely drenched-- and couldn't be more pleased about it!
 

As if the earlier events weren't enough, we had a birthday party-- complete with ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins-- at Grammuh and Grampuh's house that evening. Thomas blew out all five candles on his "Thomas the Tank Engine"-themed cake and was so excited to open his great presents. He got several additions to his Thomas the Tank Engine set-- including the Roundhouse, Hospital, blocks to build tunnels and brides, and some more trains. We also got him a really cool backpack to use when he goes to (gulp!) kindergarten at the end of the month.
 

I don't think any five-year-old could wish for a better birthday! Happy Birthday Tom! 

A Girl Named Zippy

Last night, my book club reviewed A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, IN by Haven Kimmel. The book is a memoir about a feisty little girl and her young life in a small town of 300 people. The writing is quick and witty and this is just a fantastic read. Highly recommended!